Perceptual Constancies in Psychology

Questions and Answers

What are perceptual constancies?

How humans perceive objects the same even if the image on the retina is different.

What did Kaye and Bower study?

Shape constancy in infants.

What does Kaye and Bower's study suggest?

Babies have an innate shape constancy ability when noticing what shapes they are feeling and what shapes they are seeing.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Kaye and Bower's study?

+shows a basic idea of innate shape constancy; -difficult to tell why the babies sucked or didn't suck the dummy. Signup and view all the answers

What did Slater, Mattock and Brown study?

They showed a newborn small and large cubes. Signup and view all the answers

What does Slater, Mattock and Brown's study suggest?

Babies have some element of innate size constancy even after being tricked. Signup and view all the answers

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Slater, Mattock and Brown's study?

+shows an innate understanding of size constancy; -maybe the babies looked at the new cube because it was new. Signup and view all the answers

What is habituation?

Becoming used to something, therefore you basically ignore it. Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Perceptual Constancies Overview

Perceptual constancies allow humans to perceive objects consistently despite variations in retinal images (e.g., a door remains rectangular despite appearing trapezoidal when open).
Common types include size and shape constancy.

Kaye and Bower's Study

Investigated shape constancy in infants using a dummy and corresponding images.
Found babies preferred the first image that matched the shape they were feeling, indicating an innate ability for shape constancy.
Supports Gibson's theory of perceptual development.

Implications of Kaye and Bower's Findings

Infants demonstrate a basic understanding of shape constancy.
The study's limitations include difficulty in interpreting babies' actions and the possibility that infants were recognizing different shapes instead.

Slater, Mattock and Brown's Research

Focused on newborns' reactions to small and large cubes.
Found newborns gazed longer at new cubes, indicating an awareness of size constancy even when retinal images were identical.
Suggests innate size constancy may exist but could depend on maturity and experiential context.

Evaluation of Slater, Mattock and Brown's Study

Provides evidence for innate understanding of size constancy.
Supports the concepts of Gibson’s theory concerning perceptual development.
Limitations include uncertainty over whether infants' longer gazing was due to novelty rather than size perception, as babies cannot verbally communicate their reasons.

Concept of Habituation

Refers to the process of becoming accustomed to stimuli, leading to decreased attention (e.g., consistently seeing one’s nose and ignoring it).
A critical phenomenon in understanding perceptual adjustments and sensory awareness.

Description

Explore the fascinating world of perceptual constancies with this quiz. Learn how humans perceive objects consistently despite changes in their visual representation. Discover studies, including Kaye and Bower's work on infants' shape constancy.